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Google could actually make augmented reality useful, for better or worse
Nightmare scenario: Google could make fixing your relatives' computer possible over the phone
Google can already consider ARCore a success, with the app hitting one billion installs on the Play Store in December 2020. The company has also shared that about 850 million devices with an ARCore certification are currently active, so it's no wonder Google is invested in improving the experience that gives us AR animals as well as TikTok and Duo filters. Following the I/O keynote, the company is launching ARCore 1.24, which introduces a so-called Raw Depth API and the Recording and Playback API.
Galaxy S20 family formally joins list of devices supporting AR objects in Google Search
The list of supported phones and tablets is ever-expanding
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On many Android devices, Google Search lets you view tons of 3D models like animals, pets, skeletons, cells, Neil Armstrong's spacesuit, and much more. With the tap of a button, you can move these objects into your home and see them as though they were in your camera's viewfinder. It's even possible to snap photos and take videos. The list of supported phones is ever-expanding — devices like the Sony Xperia 1 II, the Poco X2, the Xiaomi Redmi K30, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 Lite made the cut we when checked in at the beginning of June, and now a few more are popping up, including the flagship Galaxy S20 series.
Google is always hard at work on adding ARCore support to new devices. This time around, those include the brand-new Note10 and 10+, but other than that, a bigger shift has occurred on the company's AR front – that is, if you count marketing and naming schemes as big shifts. The catchy ARCore Play Store listing makes way for the cumbersome phrase "Google Play Service for AR." The change has already been visible for a while, but the company only introduced the new name in the app's changelog last week, along with announcing support for 60fps rendering on capable devices.